This invention relates to vacuum cleaner headlights. In particular, this invention relates to a vacuum cleaner headlight assembly including a light pipe.
It is well known to include a headlight at the front of a vacuum cleaner to illuminate the surface to be cleaned. Such headlights are particularly useful to illuminate corners of rooms where the ambient light is not that bright, and for cleaning under furniture. Headlights can be provided both on the base of an upright vacuum cleaner and on the motor-driven nozzle of a canister vacuum cleaner. Hereafter, the term "vacuum cleaner" will be used to refer to both the base of an upright vacuum cleaner and the motor-driven nozzle of a canister vacuum cleaner, unless otherwise noted.
The simplest and most common form of vacuum cleaner headlight includes one or more bulbs mounted behind a lens near the front of the vacuum cleaner. In such a headlight the bulbs are usually mounted in a reflector housing. To be most useful, the headlight must illuminate the area immediately in front of the vacuum cleaner. To achieve that result, the bulb and lens are placed as far forward as possible to avoid casting the shadow of the vacuum cleaner itself on the floor in front of the vacuum cleaner. However, the size of the bulb and reflector housing can add significantly to the height of the vacuum cleaner, making it more difficult for the vacuum cleaner to be used under furniture. For that reason, in some cases the bulb is moved further back, but that results in shadows in the area immediately in front of the vacuum cleaner, which is precisely the area to be cleaned.
It is also known to use light pipes in vacuum cleaner headlights. In such a headlight system, the bulb can be placed within the body of the vacuum cleaner remote from the front face, and the light is conducted to the front face by a light pipe, which is an optical waveguide, usually rigid, formed from glass, quartz, or optical grade plastics such as methacrylate plastics.
However, in known vacuum cleaner light pipe headlight systems, the light exiting the front face of the light pipe tended to be concentrated directly in front of the bulb, so that even if the light pipe exit end were wide, the light pattern would not cover the full area in front of the vacuum cleaner. To provide a useful distribution of light, it has been known to use multiple bulbs and, in at least one case, multiple light pipes across the width of the vacuum cleaner.
It would be desirable to be able to provide a vacuum cleaner headlight which does not excessively increase the height of the front of a vacuum cleaner.
It would also be desirable to be able to provide a vacuum cleaner headlight which illuminates the area immediately in front of the vacuum cleaner.
It would further be desirable to be able to provide a vacuum cleaner headlight which has an even distribution of light across the width of the vacuum cleaner.
It would still further be desirable to provide such a vacuum cleaner, incorporating a light pipe, which only required one light pipe and one light bulb or other light source.